After the disappointment of not getting the Fulbright he applied for, prospective student Sam and I have — as is the norm in this game — picked ourselves up, dusted ourselves down, and applied elsewhere: this time to the OMAFRA HQP programme. Fingers tightly crossed ’til April or so.

It’s Reading Week here, and with Andrea (L) and our undergrad research student Shining (R) both at home with family in Toronto, the best way to meet up seemed to be for them to get together, with me then skyping in from Guelph.

So, here they are in a quiet nook under some magazines in the Markham Chapters (Starbucks proving way too noisy), all ready to thrash out some tough issues. We are trying to do our first ever proper meta-analysis, calculating ‘effect sizes’ from lab primate enrichment studies to see what predicts the best ways to tackle abnormal repetitive behaviour.